Wow Dick Gordon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26G28D63ATY

Philippine
National Red Cross Chairman and Senator Richard J. Gordon sent off the
first two members of a three man PNRC disaster assessment team to
Myanmar where they will lend their expertise in disaster management,
particularly in the areas of relief goods distribution and water
sanitation, community health and nursing. Gordon personally sent off
Nenita Briones, PNRC Cotabato Chapter Administrator [right], and Edwin
Tatalagsa, PNRC Davao Chapter Disaster Management Service [left] at the
Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Both have been part of Red Cross
Regional Disaster Response Teams in Pakistan under the International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). A third
member of the PNRC assessment team, Evelyn Lacsina, will join up with
Briones and Tatalagsa in Myanmar. Lacsina, has been to Myanmar in
previous Red Cross missions.

In
spite of billions of pesos spent by the government on increasing rice
production to a level of self-sufficiency, the country still needs to
import 15 to 20 percent of its rice needs.

People
should not use the interfaith rally in Makati City Friday to press for
the ouster of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Senator Richard Gordon
urged Friday.

In a phone interview with INQUIRER.net, Gordon
warned that a rally that seeks to oust Arroyo could tempt the military
into mounting a coup that would benefit the very person the protesters
seek to remove from power.

"I’ve always been a risk taker but we
have to be careful because it could be a ‘coup me,’" he said, referring
to a scheme by which a coup would actually benefit the administration.

Gordon
said he wants the country’s political and judicial system to work and
urged the protesters to exploit the system to jail the corrupt.

"We
are all looking for justice. To my mind, [going to the rally] is an
exercise in futility if we don’t put anyone who’s guilty in jail. I
don’t care who he is or who she is, but we must let the institutions
work. Let the courts, the prosecution, the Sandigayan [anti-graft
court] function," he said.

"Are we so stupid that we cannot make
this system work? After Erap [former president Joseph Estrada] was
charged, convicted, jailed, and pardoned, have we become better morally
as a people?" he asked.

Gordon said the current political crisis
is the result of issues not being resolved. "There’s no closure. Did
EDSA 1 resolve anything? [Former President Corazon] Cory [Aquino] was
not able to solve the murder of her husband. Did EDSA 2 resolve
anything? Sure, Erap was convicted, but he was also pardoned," he said.

He
cited the case of China as a nation that values closure. There, he
said, all government officials get their day in court. He noted that
some Chinese ministers have lost their lives following state trials for
failing to perform their public duties.

While he said he would
not stop his son, Red Cross volunteers, and friends from joining the
Makati rally, Gordon himself is not going.

"A senator like
myself who will stand as judge in case an impeachment case is brought
against her should be circumspect and independent. We cannot be seen as
biased…There’s a lot of anger out there and [going there] can cloud
your judgment," he said.

Gordon, an alumnus of Ateneo De Manila
University, said he is not even going to watch the La Salle-Ateneo
fund-raising basketball game "for truth and Jun [Rodolfo Noel Lozada,
key witness in the Senate probe into the national broadband network
scandal]" on Sunday.

SEN RICHARD GORDON
  ‘Don’t use rally to oust Arroyo, use system to jail guilty’
                       By Veronica    Uy
          INQUIRER.net
          First Posted 16:58:00 02/29/2008
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20080229-121992/
Dont-use-rally-to-oust-Arroyo-use-system-to-jail-guilty

Senator
Richard Gordon, alumnus of the University of the Philippines College of
Law and UP Alumni Association Most Distinguished Alumnus for 1997,
autographs a shirt of a co-alumnus who joined the Motorcade and
Kick-off activities of the UP Centennial celebration at UP Diliman.
Looking on is UP President Emerlinda Roman.

MANILA,
Philippines — Former president Joseph Estrada is prohibited from
seeking reelection under the Constitution, Senator Richard Gordon said
Thursday, laughing off news reports of Estrada’s plan to run in the
2010 polls.

“He should run just to test whether the Filipino people really wants change, or simply wants to be entertained,” he said.

Gordon
admitted that he himself has been thinking about running for the
highest position in the land. “I’m available to run for president and
I’ve been thinking about it. I am no hypocrite,” he said, noting that
since becoming mayor of Olongapo City, he had always brought the people
up the social and economic scale and not just make broken promises.

Gordon,
although affiliated with the majority in the Senate, has said that he
was not with the administration and warned the political opposition
about Estrada’s announced intention to run again for president.

“Surely, if Erap runs, that would divide the opposition, wouldn’t it?” said Gordon, referring to Estrada by his nickname.

He
said the primary issue that would be raised against Estrada as a
presidential candidate in the 2010 elections would be his record as
president, especially his conviction for plunder.

“For me, what
is important is the reaction of the Filipinos nationally to Estrada’s
candidacy. Although we pitied him when he was under detention, we
should first consider our sense of justice before our sense of pity,”
he said in Filipino.

“While we all condemn graft and corruption,
this is the first time that a president in our country who has been
sentenced [for corruption] but has not spent a single day in [state]
prison,” he said.

The possibility of Gordon and Cebu Governor
Gwendolyn Garcia running together for president and vice president,
respectively, in the 2010 election, has been raised.

Senator
Richard Gordon yesterday challenged presidential wannabes to start
public debates among themselves even if the next election would still
be held two-and- a-half years from now.

Debates will enhance the
chances of candidates with limited resources to present an alternative
platform of government, Gordon said.

Gordon, who said he is
available for the presidential race, did not name names but only
recently, Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay floated his plan to join the 2010
presidential derby.

Chairman Bayani Fernando of the Metro Manila
Development Authority also dropped hints of his political plans but
said his party, Lakas, has the final word on its standard-bearer.

Gordon
said the Philippines should take a cue from the practice in the United
States where the Republican and Democratic parties start early the
process of selecting their prospective standard-bearers as what is
happening now.

“In my view, it is in the best interest of the
people for presidential aspirants to come out and engage in debates
among themselves like what they are doing in the US,” he told an
interview with newsmen.

Unless the presidential debates are
held—and as early as possible, Gordon said the surveys will again
influence the judgment of the people which, he said, is favorable to
well-funded candidates but unfair to people like him who could not
match the resources of the former.

He said that in previous
presidential elections, the candidates had the tendency to shy away
from debates especially if they were super-rich or very popular figures
from show business.

Gordon said it is through public debates
that the people will really know who are capable of providing
leadership and solving the multifarious ills of the country.

Gordon
has no qualms in presenting himself as a presidential aspirant, saying
he dreamt of being catapulated to Malacañang as early as 1992.

“I am available, but I haven’t made any announcement yet,” he said.

“I
think my options are open. At present, I am working as a senator but I
am available for the presidency because like what other people have
said, I should have run in 1992 or in 1998. But I didn’t have enough
resources or experience at that time.”

“I think having been a
mayor [of Olongapo City], having been a Constitutional Convention
delegate, having been chairman of the Subic Bay Authority, having been
a secretary of tourism promoting our country, having been governor of
the Philippine National Red Cross helping our people in all major
disasters in the country, I think I have now enough experience.”

Gordon
admitted that it would give him tremendous advantage if he will be
chosen as the standard-bearer of the ruling Lakas party or the
administration coalition.

“I am always referred to as an
administration senator. But I don’t always vote for the administration.
I have been critical of the pardon for [former President] Erap
[Estrada]. And I’m not with Erap either.”

A
senator on Wednesday expressed belief that President Gloria Macapagal
Arroyo was aware that "cash gifts" were distributed among congressmen
and local government executives last month in Malacañang, during the
height of calls for her impeachment.

This, as the Senate set for next week the start of hearings on the "cash gift" controversy.

Senator
Richard Gordon, who ran under the administration ticket in 2004, said
Mrs Arroyo who heads the Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi) was
likely to have knowledge on the distribution of cash gifts.

House
Deputy Speaker Ma. Amelita Villarosa, Kampi secratary, earlier admitted
that cash gifts distributed to various local government officials were
from Kampi’s funds.

"It is hard to believe that money, from
200,000 pesos to 500,000 pesos were being distributed without anyone
telling anyone what it was for and where it had come from," Gordon said.

"It
is even harder to believe that the President, who we assume is also the
leader of Kampi, did not know that money was being distributed like
rain or sunshine," he added.

Gordon said Villarosa’s admission
"puts to light the basest manifestation of our transactional political
culture and should challenge our people to rise up to make political
parties more accountable for their actions."

"We can’t say that
what had transpired in Malacanang was bribery or an attempt to secure
some kind of action in return for a generous sum of money. However,
millions of pesos changed hands under circumstances where the resident
of Malacañang was being assailed by scandals and an impeachment
complaint had just been filed," Gordon said.

The administration
senator said that in light of the cash gift scandal, he would push for
a legislation to compel political organization to divulge the sources
of their funds and how these funds were disposed.

"The bigger
aspect and the wider view of this action is to craft a body of laws
that will make political parties more accountable for their actions and
win for everyone a chance to sow the seeds of transforming our rotting
political culture," he said. - GMANews.TV

Arroyo likely knew ‘cash gifts’ were given -Gordon
         Posted November 7, 2007, 5:57 pm
         http://www.gmanews.tv/story/67662/Arroyo-likely-knew-cash-gifts-were-given–Gordon